You may have seen, or even participated in an Instagram beauty contest….

Did you win? Lose? Feel good or bad about yourself??? Actually, it doesn’t matter whether you win or not, these beauty contests are not good for anyone!

Have you rated other people? How did it make you feel?

There are THREE reasons that you should say NO to online beauty contests:

1. Online beauty contests put another person (sometimes even an anonymous person) in charge of rating and ranking you. Who needs that! You should be in charge of choosing the opinions that you care about.

2. Winning can make you feel special for a very short time, but in REAL LIFE, it won’t last. Real relationships and real opinions from real people that REALLY care about you is all that matters.

3. In these contests, rating other people might make you feel powerful for one minute, but in REAL LIFE, you will probably feel bad if someone else’s feelings are hurt by your rating.

Sooooo….use your social media ONLY for good!!

xoxo Dr. Susan

January and February sometimes difficult months for some people. After the holidays are over, it can feel like a let down–the excitement and fun are over and now it’s the rest of the school year stretches ahead. In addition, the colder, darker winter months can also cause people to feel sad or even depressed. The name for sadness and depression that is related to the winter months is known as SAD–Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Do you feel sad at this time of year; do you wonder if you have post-holiday blues, or SAD?

Here are some signs:

• crying more than usual
• sleeping more than usual, or trouble sleeping
• feeling very tired, not having energy
• withdrawing from your usual activities or from social activities
• having a hard time focusing or paying attention more than usual
• feeling sad or depressed

If you have any of these signs–especially a few of them–you should speak to your parent or doctor or to another adult that you trust. It’s important to make sure that you ask for help whenever you don’t feel good–emotionally or physically!

In addition to speaking to an adult, some things that can help you are getting enough sleep, exercising (very important!), and spending some time in the sun each day (even if it is cold).

xoxo

Dr. Susan